WOMAN OR GAY – Der Spiegel previews the future War of the German Succession:

“The question of who will lead the CDU into the future — after some 22 years of Merkel at the helm — will likely be decided between the socially conscious Catholic Kramp-Karrenbauer and the conservative Spahn.”

“Socially conscious” is a code name for the left of the Christian Democrats, the territory which Angela Merkel has inhabited for a long while now, bound as she is, not unhappily, in a coalition with the Social Democrats. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, premier of Saarland, has just been installed as the national secretary of the Christian Democrats by Merkel, thus publicly anointing her as the Chancellor’s favoured successor. “Conservative” is a code-name for, well, conservative. Jens Spahn is also a Catholic, though not a socially conscious one, except for having campaigned for same-sex marriage. Once, this would have made him a progressive darling, but Spahn also opposes Merkel’s open door immigration policy and want to ban burqa. Interesting times for Germany.